


Party of Three

by Pteropoda (SilentP)



Series: You and You and I [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: BDSM dynamics, Bad Sex, Blindfolds, Dom/sub, M/M, Other, PWP, Sticky Sex, Threesome, restraints/bondage, use of a safe word
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-20
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-02-18 02:01:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2331101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentP/pseuds/Pteropoda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Early in the days of the war, Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Starscream are still sorting out their dynamics as a trine. It goes well until it doesn't. All Skywarp can say is, the sex had better be worth it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I'm fond of writing jet threesomes. In the same universe as the other SS/SW/TC fic, though this is a prequel to that one! I have far too many ideas for this whole thing for something that started as a kink meme response.

Flying over Cybertron was a thrill like no other.

When the skies were clear, and the groundpounders were little more than blips on the surface far below—that was Skywarp’s favorite time. Everyone called Seekers the Lords of the air, and Skywarp never felt more like it than when he was above it all, ready to decide the fate of another mech with a single shot. There was nothing better than having the whole of the planet in his sights, and thanks to the Decepticons, he _knew_ how it felt. Joining the resistance had been the best decision he ever made.

Now he looked down on the city of Kaon, as he and his trine flew on toward their recently liberated stronghold. The light was dim, but the city blazed like a torch below, lit with bright fires where the power grid had been destroyed in the fighting. Ahead, the fortress Kolkular loomed, a treasure there for the taking.

Right now, returning from battle, it should have been a perfect time to bask in the moment. Flying back from a _victory_ was the best. There would be drinking and celebrations the moment they get back, and promotions to follow. If they kept their lead, they’d get their choice of loot, energon, maybe even their own rooms, and Skywarp was running high on the victory.

Or he would be, if Starscream would just shut up.

Skywarp hadn’t liked Starscream before they shared a trine, and being forced to work together hadn’t done anything to change that. He was far too full of himself. The moment Megatron had told them to fly together, Starscream had declared himself leader, and things had only gotten worse from there.

One of the countless annoying decisions Starscream had made since was what he called a “post-battle critique.” As far as Skywarp could tell, it was a chance for him to brag about his own skills and blame Thundercracker and Skywarp for every single thing that had gone wrong during the battle.

He was particularly riled this time around, because his screeching was about to blow out Skywarp’s audials. “It’s as though you’ve never flown in formation before!” he raged, even as he led them on a twisting path around the bombed-out remains of the city’s spires. “Then again, perhaps you haven’t. Any trine that had a member who flew as disgracefully as you did today would kick them out immediately. You bank too sharply; you speed through bombing runs with no consideration for your fellows. One gets the impression that you _want_ us dead.”

Skywarp hated the stupidly indirect flight paths Starscream took whenever he got ranting, almost as much as he hated the way Starscream never admitted to his own screw-ups. “Like you’re one to talk,” He snapped back, with all the anger that had been building since Starscream started up his vocalizer. “When I tell you the coordinates I’m teleporting to, you’re not supposed to fly right toward them! You can’t even tell me you didn’t get them. Thundercracker obviously did! He had no problem being _anywhere i_ n the sky but where I was going.”

He deliberately twisted away from Starscream’s flight path to pull clear of the spires, but moments later, Starscream was on his trail, putting on a burst of speed until he was in the lead again. Thundercracker appeared in his wake, settling to fly behind the both of them.

“Perhaps if you looked before you teleported, that wouldn’t be such a problem!” Starscream shrieked. “Or, even better, you could fly properly, and that would eliminate the need for so much teleporting. As it is, you waste fuel and put all of us in danger.”

“I’m not wasteful!” Skywarp shouted indignantly. “And at least I don’t get slagged every other fight.”

“ _No one_ would get slagged if you would do what you’re supposed to, Skywarp.” Starscream said loftily. Skywarp didn’t believe that poise for one second. Starscream had been yelling just as loudly as him only a few moments ago. Acting all lordly now was just a cheap attempt at getting a rise out of Skywarp when Starscream knew he was wrong.

“And maybe we’d fly like a trine if you actually acted like a leader, instead of sucking in your own exhaust,” Skywarp hissed. “Thundercracker works with me, but that’s obviously below you, not-so-mighty-leader.”

They shot out from between the last two towers and scattered across the sky. Starscream punched his afterburners, pulling into a tight turn to aim his charging null rays right for Skywarp.

“You take that back!” He growled. Skywarp snarled right back, charging his own weapons, but before he could begin there was another frame between him and Starscream, so close he had to veer sharply to avoid a collision. Thundercracker didn’t even flinch, even when Skywarp nearly clipped his wing.

“We all need to practice,” Thundercracker said before either of them could start yelling again.

Skywarp groaned as he pulled into a turn that put him off of Thundercracker’s left wing “We _already_ practice! Screamer’s got us out drilling every spare astrosecond.”

“It would take much less time if you’d pay attention to the drills-“ Starscream, sliding in off Thundercracker’s other wing, started to say, but Thundercracker interrupted again.

“Not like that. We’re fine at flying when we’re on our own. We don’t work together like a trine.” Thundercracker said. He was keeping himself between the two of them even now, Skywarp noticed, with his EM field between them like a barrier of calm.

“There’s only one of us who has that problem,” Starscream sneered, but even he quieted at the reproach that rolled through Thundercracker’s field at that.

“I can work with you both ‘cause I’ve spent time with you both. Not drilling, just around. We never spend time together, the three of us, when we’re not forced to.”

“Who would want to?” Skywarp cried. “I already spend too much time with that slagger.”

“We’re going to need to if we want to get better. If we want to survive.” Thundercracker’s voice was heavy and solemn. “How many near-misses did we have today? And this was a _good_ fight. How long before one of those finally takes us out?”

“Who says I wouldn’t be better off without you?” Starscream said.

“And who’d you rather fly with?” Thundercracker replied, infuriatingly reasonable. “It’s not like you not to go after what you want, Starscream.” Their self-appointed trine leader was silent at that.

Skywarp’s field roiled. He wanted to say it wasn’t true. The Seekers were the best in the air, they could’t be beaten by any Autobot! They wouldn’t ever be brought down by some weak bots like that. But even as he thought it, he remembered the shot that had clipped his tail, the way he kept spending more fuel to teleport as the anti-aircraft artillery got more and more accurate…

It was true. And typical Thundercracker, to suggest a fix before he even brought up the problem, though Skywarp couldn’t say the solution was any more appealing than the problem.

“It is… a valid assessment,” Starscream said finally, as the landing platforms of Kolkular came into view. It was as close to Starscream admitting that he’d been wrong as Skywarp had ever heard.

“However, as tolerable as you may be as an assistant, Thundercracker, I don’t expect that layabout to be able to contribute any _meaningful_ conversation. I suppose another solution will have to suffice. Fortunately for us all, there’s a simple solution. You two do interface, don’t you?”

Skywarp actually lost altitude at that. “What?”

“Interface, Skywarp,” Starscream said, in the smuggest tone possible. “There’s a panel in your pelvic array-“

“Oh, shove it.” Skywarp snarled, edging toward Starscream’s flight path only for Thundercracker to plant himself in the way again. “I bet you can’t satisfy anyone in the berth, you’re too busy taking care of yourself.”

Surprisingly, Starscream didn’t take the bait. “You’ll just have to find that out, won’t you?” Skywarp growled wordlessly, but Starscream was already continuing. “Unless you can suggest a better alternative?”

Skywarp huffed. Normally, he would suggest that they get overcharged, but he wasn’t about to be around Starscream when his processors were addled.

His sullen silence was enough of an answer for Starscream, who was radiating smugness so strongly Skywarp didn’t even need to brush fields with him to sense it. “Then it’s decided.”

“Don’t I get a say?” Thundercracker interjected, though his own field was tinged with amusement.

Starscream scoffed. “Don’t tell me this wasn’t your plan all along,” he said scornfully, as he circled around the spire that marked the center of the fortress and transformed to land. “Besides, I know you find the both of us attractive. If you want to do something else, then _suggest_ it.”

Thundercracker didn’t say anything more as he transformed to land next to Starscream. Skywarp followed last, with a showy flip that had Starscream’s faceplates pinching with irritation. Skywarp just shot him a sly grin.

“Well.” Starscream huffed. “As much as I would love to stay and plan, there are far more important things that need my oversight at the moment.” And with that, he turned on his heel and headed for the lift.

“Like what?” Skywarp said indignantly.

“Like the energon stores,” Starscream said with a smirk. The lift doors closed.

“The-“ Skywarp cycled his optics. “That _glitch!_ Fragger! I’ll teach him to mess with me!” He growled.

“Skywarp-“ Thundercracker started, but Skywarp ignored him for just long enough to port himself away.

_____

The moment he got to the coordinates for the energon storage, Skywarp set to shorting out the door to keep Starscream from making an entrance. It was quick work, just a matter of pulling away some panels and jamming some pistons, but the moment he finished it, his comm pinged.

He’d been set to ignore it, assuming it was Starscream, but the priority marker froze him in place.

_“Skywarp: Ordered to assist.”_

Skywarp shuddered. Soundwave was without a doubt the mech most loyal to Megatron, but there was something altogether creepy about him that put Skywarp on edge. Something about the way the mech looked at him always made him feel peeled open, as if his very spark were being stared at.

_“Assist with what?”_

_“Megatron: Requires captured resources be properly distributed. Soundwave: In charge of distribution. Skywarp: Will bring Soundwave to energon storage.”_

Skywarp gulped, thankful he wasn’t in anywhere near Soundwave, because his field would surely have given him away. _“Uh… sure. Be right there. But I think the door’s locked, anyway…”_

 _“Doors: Not a deterrent,”_ Soundwave said in his eerie monotone.

 _“Right.”_ Skywarp in-vented deeply, and warped.

In the end, neither he nor Starscream got any energon cubes, but it was worth it to teleport Soundwave in directly behind Starscream while he was still struggling to open the doors.

_____

Soundwave was a ruthless quartermaster. By the time the Decepticon shock troops arrived at the fortress, every last room had been surveyed and assigned a purpose, and every last sip of energon had been tallied. Much to Skywarp’s displeasure, he and Thundercracker had been assigned to the barracks while Starscream got quarters all to himself.

Starscream gloated, of course. Skywarp promptly jammed his door, and counted it as a victory when Starscream stopped talking to him.

Not that there was much time for them to talk. The Decepticon troops spent days building fortifications that would repel any Autobot attempt to retake the fortress, and by the time they were done, Skywarp wanted nothing more than to recharge for a week.

In fact, he’d set to doing just that when Thundercracker disturbed him with a sharp tap to his wingtip.

“What?” he asked, without bothering to online his optics. He’d managed a comfortable sprawl on his berth for once, and he didn’t want to move it.

“C’mon. Starscream’s waiting,” Thundercracker said.

“Then he can wait some more,” Skywarp whined. “He can’t make us run drills right now.”

Thundercracker nudged him again. “We’re not doing drills this time, remember?” Skywarp groaned and batted his hand away, but Thundercracker didn’t relent. “I thought you were looking forward to showing him up.”

Skywarp’s optics brightened immediately. “You mean… Oh! Scrap, why didn’t you say so? Let’s go already!” He bounced off the berth and snagged his trinemate’s wrist, dragging him bodily out into the hallway.

“I thought you remembered,” Thundercracker huffed, but he allowed himself to be towed along.

“Well, I do now. I’m gonna ‘face his snark out of him,” Skywarp leered.

Starscream’s quarters were tiny and cramped but they were private. Skywarp had no desire to interface somewhere that they could be barged in on, but it still grated on him that it was Starscream’s room that they would be using. A bombed-out building would have been a better place for them to interface. Pit, the barracks where Skywarp and Thundercracker recharged would be better, but Thundercracker would never let it happen.

The door hissed open as soon as Skywarp tapped the panel. Thundercracker paused just inside the doorway, but Skywarp was determined not to be put out by Starscream, so he grabbed Thundercracker by the wrist again and pulled him over to sit side by side on the berth. Starscream’s room only had one chair, obviously meant for the desk that took up one corner, and of course Starscream had already claimed it by the time they entered. It earned him a glare, but he just answered it with a look of his own, and did not release his grip on Thundercracker.

Starscream gave the both of them a haughty look, and huffed. “I suppose it could be worse,” he said eventually, shooting the both of them a disdainful look.

“Oh, like you’re any prize yourself,” he snapped. Starscream was bristling with indignant anger, but Skywarp ignored him in favor of turning toward Thundercracker and pulling him back onto the berth. He pushed the blue Seeker down, hauling Thundercracker’s servos up to pin them above his helm, and was rewarded by a sudden rush of heat through Thundercracker’s field.

“Keep those there,” he demanded, and grinned when Thundercracker responded with an eager nod. He could feel Thundercracker’s field stilling and meshing with his own, the way it did when it was just the two of them. “Let’s see how long it takes before I have to pin those down,” he said wickedly.

“Oh, would you stop that?” Starscream grumbled. He abandoned his chair and stepped toward the berth, whacking Skywarp on the wing as he came close. “If you think you’re going to ignore me in my own quarters, you’ve got something to learn.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Screamer,” Skywarp shot back, trailing his hands down Thundercracker’s arms and along his cockpit, drinking in the way his touch made Thundercracker squirm.

“Move back,” Starscream ordered, punctuating his order with a shove to Skywarp’s pauldron. Before Skywarp could protest, Starscream was already kneeling on the berth just above Thundercracker’s helm, with his panel positioned just so.

Skywarp could feel the anticipation that tinged Thundercracker’s field at the actions, and his engines grumbled with irritation. Thundercracker was supposed to be paying attention to him, not stupid Starscream. Determined to win back that focus, he moved his servos from cockpit to trail further down Thundercracker’s frame, slipping into the transformation seams at his hips to tweak at hidden wires. He did not bother to hide his smug grin when Thundercracker’s fans cycled on.

Starscream glared, but was apparently not deterred. He tapped sharply against Thundercracker’s cockpit. “Mouth only,” he ordered, widening his stance to bring his panel closer to Thundercracker’s faceplates. Beyond the spread of Starscream’s thighs, Skywarp could see Thundercracker’s servos clenching rhythmically, even as he leaned up toward Starscream’s panel.

Not to be deterred, Skywarp turned his own attention to Thundercracker’s panel, teasing along the seams of it, brushing over but never quite triggering the manual release. Thundercracker whined and arched his hips into the fleeting contact, only to have Skywarp pull his servos away. Instead, he continued to work his way down Thundercracker’s frame, skimming along his thighs before working his hands over his trinemate’s thrusters. Thundercracker twitched helplessly every time Skywarp traced along the heel, but he only strengthened his grip and continued.

A loud _snik_ and a groan made his helm jerk upright, indignant, only to see Starscream, helm thrown back and valve uncovered. Skywarp felt a stab of lust despite himself, and frowned. Starscream had no business being that hot.

Not that Starscream was paying any attention to him. He was leaned back to brace himself, rocking his hips with tiny motions into the slick thrusts of Thundercracker’s glossa. Skywarp fought down another surge of irritation, but returned his attention to Thundercracker’s chassis, this time adding his glossa to the mix. The first time he licked the seam of Thundercracker’s thigh, he actually heard his vents stall out, and the noises only got better from there.

It wasn’t long before Starscream was making little gasps of his own every time Skywarp managed to make Thundercracker groan, and his field was flooded with equal parts desire and irritation. It meant that Skywarp was winning, and he let his own smugness at that fact permeate his own field.

It was a stalemate that did not last long. Starscream reset his vocalizer with a rasp of static. “Thundercracker. Hands.”

Automatically, Thundercracker reached up, but Skywarp’s own servos darted out, and he hauled Thundercracker’s wrists down to his sides and pinned them there. “Oh no you don’t,” he whispered, when he saw Thundercracker looking toward him with startled optics. “I told you that you weren’t going to use these, now didn’t I?” With his hands now thoroughly occupied, he didn’t have as much opportunity to tease as he’d had before, but he made do by grinding his panel against Thundercracker’s, relishing in the contact of scorching metal and the little shudder it produced.

“Thundercracker!” Starscream’s voice snapped, sharp as a whip. “I gave you an order.”

“Yeah, well, too bad. He’s not following it,” Skywarp purred, smirking as Starscream turned narrowed optics on him.

“He will if I say so!” Starscream hissed, leaning forward with wings flared.

“But not if I say otherwise,” Skywarp taunted, leaning forward.

Thundercracker, who had gone still and quiet between them, suddenly tugged wildly at Skywarp’s grip. He looked down, a reprimand on the tip of his glossa, but it died when he saw the look on his faceplates. Thundercracker had pulled his field in, tight and unreadable, and every wire in his frame seemed tense.

“Thundercracker?”

Skywarp said it first, but Starscream froze the moment he did, and shifted his hips away from Thundercracker’s faceplates, staring down at their third.

Thundercracker immediately curled in on himself. The trine’s emergency channel crackled to life. “ _Stop. Stop,_ ” he said. It was nearly a plea.

It was like a switch had been flipped. Skywarp released his wrists immediately, and scrambled backward. Starscream, on the other side of the berth, did the same.

In the sudden stillness, the whine of stressed systems was all the more apparent. As the minutes went by, Thundercracker slowly uncurled, and the grind of his engines dropped down toward a normal range. It was even longer before he relaxed enough that he did not flinch when Skywarp slowly crept forward to put his hands against his wings.

“Tell us what went wrong,” Starscream said, when all of Thundercracker’s systems were reading normal again. He edged closer, but did not join Skywarp in the petting.

“The two of you need to talk to each other,” Thundercracker said finally, raising his head. “I couldn’t follow all those orders at once.”

“Well, if ‘Screamer would just stop messing it up…” Skywarp muttered.

Starscream scowled, wings bristling. “You were the one causing problems! If you had followed my plan, everything would have gone perfectly!”

“Stop it,” Thundercracker interrupted, but his voice was shaking. He pulled himself away, wings held high and strained. “Fight if you want. But don’t fight over me.”

And before Skywarp could even cycle his optics, Thundercracker was out of the door.

Skywarp could only stare after him for a moment, dumbfounded, but a whack across his helm had him whirling toward Starscream with a snarl.

“This is your fault!” Starscream screeched. “You incompetent fool! You should have listened to me!”

Rage burned through Skywarp. “I won’t when you’re only going to give stupid orders! If you think you can just order me around like some mindless pawn, you’ve got another thing coming,” he said hotly. “Being our commander doesn’t make you master of the berth.”

“You watch your words.” Starscream’s optics were bright, and his field was jagged with rage, but his tone had dropped to a dangerous hiss. “I am the leader of this trine.” It was a warning, but Skywarp wasn’t just some grunt Starscream could shout into submission, and he refused to back down.

“Not for long, if you keep acting like that,” he retorted. “I’m going to go check on Thundercracker. You can stay here and _plan_. Not like it’ll do any good.”

Starscream actually lunged at him, but he was too late. Skywarp was already gone.

Teleporting with extra charge crawling through his systems was uncomfortable, but Skywarp was far more concerned with keeping all of his pieces from getting integrated with a bulkhead in the process. It wasn’t easy. There were supply closets bigger than the petty officer barracks.

And Thundercracker was already in them.

It only took a glance to see that Thundercracker wasn’t all right, which was good since Skywarp only had a glance before the other Seeker realized he was there and spun, shoulder cannons priming to fire.

Thundercracker only faltered when he saw Skywarp’s colors. His optics flickered, and he sagged back against the wall. “Skywarp.”

“That’s me,” Skywarp answered cautiously. “TC…”

“Don’t try and tell me you and Starscream worked things out already,” Thundercracker interrupted.

Skywarp snorted. “Yeah, right. We fought, because he’s being a glitch. But I’ll take you over him any day. C’mon.” He reached out toward Thundercracker. “The berth’s more comfortable.”

“I’m not taking care of your charge,” Thundercracker mumbled, but he was edging forward toward Skywarp’s hands.

As soon as he was in range, Skywarp resumed the wingrub that had been interrupted by Thundercracker’s abrupt departure from Starscream’s quarters, and started steering Thundercracker toward his berth. “I’ll just shoot something later. Maybe give a target Screamer’s face. That’d clear it right up, huh?”

Thundercracker didn’t laugh, but his field began to extend from his frame. Encouraged by the reaction, Skywarp continued to chatter, gently tugging Thundercracker toward the berth all the while.

“I could have the whole base lined up to take their turn, if I made more than one. I could charge, and I’d make Swindle glitch from the jealousy.” As he prattled, he maneuvered Thundercracker cockpit down on the berth, and shifted his touch from the wings to the struts of Thundercracker’s back, pressing his field forward.

Thundercracker didn’t exactly relax, but Skywarp had never seen him completely at ease anyway. Less tense was enough of a compromise for him. He regarded his trinemate’s backstruts even as he pressed servos into the grinding plating.

It wasn’t that their berthplay didn’t relax Thundercracker, but Skywarp had learned quickly that leaving immediately after could and would ruin any improvement in Thundercracker’s mood. Skywarp had been completely ignored for a week after one of his abrupt departures and that was all it had taken for him to learn better. As long as he moved to his own berth before recharging, a bit of petting did wonders for his chances of a repeat later on.

Starscream was probably too proud to bother, Skywarp thought vindictively. Especially since it would look like an apology for messing up, and when did Starscream ever apologize for even his most spectacular of blunders? Never. And here Skywarp was, looking after Thundercracker, because their Commander couldn’t take being wrong.

“You don’t need Screamer,” he blurted, staring down at Thundercracker’s wings. “He can’t even ‘face right. You oughtta just come to me. I know what you need.”

Thundercracker twisted to glance over his shoulder, and Skywarp couldn’t read the look in his optics. “We’re a trine, whether we like it or not,” he said. “If we’re going to fly together, we’re going to have to make it work.”

“And that’s why you shouldn’t ‘face him,” Skywarp muttered, but subsided. Thundercracker’s field was finally extended from his plating, and Skywarp didn’t want to ruin all his hard work by arguing. He ran his servos down Thundercracker’s backstruts one more time, letting his hands linger before finally pulling away. “You good?”

With a grunt, Thundercracker maneuvered his plating, then nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”

Skywarp pushed himself off the berth, fighting the thrill that raced through his systems with Thundercracker’s words. It was one of those weird Thundercracker things to do, thanking, just like being picky about where his bombs landed, or abusing the de-icing fluid before high-atmo flights, but this one never failed to make his spark spin in its casing.

“Then recharge already,” he scoffed, to get himself stabilized. “I’ve got things to do.”

The moment passed. “Fine, whatever,” Thundercracker said. He didn’t move from his berth, so Skywarp let himself out. Maybe he jammed the door to the barracks before he left, but, he couldn’t have just anyone walking in and startling Thundercracker after he’d just worked so hard to get him wound down, now could he?

Starscream wasn’t waiting for him outside the barracks. It was just as well, really—Skywarp was in the mood to blow something up, and if it was Screamer’s faceplates, then that would be the icing on the oil cake.

For a moment, he considered heading back toward Starscream’s quarters, but the time in the brig if he did wouldn’t be worth even the satisfaction of getting one up on that glitch. Instead, he made his way toward the range. Shooting something sounded great, even if it wasn’t shaped like his groundkisser of a trine leader.


	2. Chapter 2

Skywarp knew before he even onlined his optics that he was in the medbay, and he had to forcefully mute his vocalizer to prevent a groan from escaping. His _everything_ hurt, from his thrusters to his wingtips, in the way that only a crash could cause. As he booted up, he watched as the list of damages and repairs scrolled across his HUD with growing disgust. Both of his turbines had needed extensive repairs, which meant that walking was going to hurt for a good while, and flying would not be much better. Even worse than that, his warp generator was flagging him with complaints about extended use and maximum capacities, and that hadn’t been fixed at all.

Then again, maybe that was for the best. He didn’t trust any medic to fix that delicate programming. Better that he do it himself, even if it was a pain to calibrate.

He automatically began sorting through the errors that had piled up during the battle. The first things in the backlog were a list of steadily growing overheating and low fuel warnings, ones that Skywarp had seen and shunted to the side only moments after they popped up. He’d had more important things to think about than a potential overheat, at the time. He had no idea where the Autobots had picked up any mech crazy enough to try throwing himself at jets, let alone two, but both had been annoyingly persistent.

The final, most glaring warning was much more serious. “Maximum mass capacity reached,” it read, followed by “Energy reserves depleted. Initiating emergency stasis.”

It was the last thing Skywarp remembered seeing before waking up in the medbay.

“Turn on your optics,” someone grumbled nearby. “I know you’re online. Don’t you think you can ignore me.”

Skywarp turned them on, and immediately grimaced. Even with his optics still calibrating to medbay lighting, Starscream was a distinctive shape at his side. “Oh yuck,” he groaned. “Why are you here?”

“Because,” Starscream snapped, “They’re kicking us out of medbay, and I need someone to keep Thundercracker from falling over.”

“What?” Skywarp blurted, pushing himself upright on the medical berth. The medbay was chaos around him, completely full of mechs, both on the berths and lined up against the walls, while medics scurried back and forth calling for supplies and shouting to one another. The air was filled with the bitter tang of energon.

It took him only a moment to pick Thundercracker out from the crowd. His third trinemate was propped up against the nearby wall, looking dazed. Even from his place on the berth, Skywarp could see that his optics were flickering badly.

“What’s wrong with him?” Skywarp demanded, turning back to Starscream. Only now did he see the silvery line of welds scabbing across Starscream’s left side, and the patch covering his wing. Whatever. If Starscream was ordering him around like that he was doing fine. Besides, with welds like that, he’d already been taken care of by the medics.

“A few loose connections. Now get up!” He whacked Skywarp’s shoulder vent impatiently.

“All right, slagger! Give it a rest,” Skywarp growled. He swung his legs over the side of the berth and braced himself for the jolt that was sure to follow the moment his pedes touched the ground. Walking on recent welds was a pain, and sure enough, he wobbled for a moment when he finally pushed himself upright.

Starscream growled. “Oh, not you too.”

Skywarp shot him a look. “I’d like to see you running around on busted turbines,” he muttered. Starscream ignored him as they both started toward Thundercracker.

He didn’t even seem to notice their approach until Starscream grabbed his arm, when he flinched violently and his head jerked up. There was an unfocused look in his optics that left Skywarp uneasy, but after a moment of hollow staring, he relaxed. “Sorry,” he said, apparently recognizing his trinemates.

It was one of those Thundercracker things, and Starscream and Skywarp both ignored it. “Grab his other arm,” Starscream ordered, “and make sure he doesn’t fall. There’s nothing medbay will do about a rattled processor that I can’t do myself, especially not when they’ve got mechs with broken fuel pumps to fuss over.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Skywarp retorted. Arranging Thundercracker between them was a struggle in maneuvering their wings, and balancing Thundercracker’s weight on already aching heels was even worse, but in short order they’d managed to sort themselves out and were already making their way toward the door through the crowd.

Then, as soon as they got out of it, Starscream jerked in the completely wrong direction.

“Stop that!” Skywarp yelped, tightening his grip on Thundercracker, who had groaned at the inadvertent tug-of-war.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Starscream said, continuing to pull until Skywarp gave in and followed him. “I said I have work to do. In what universe does that mean please drag him to the barracks so everyone can watch as I fiddle around with his processor?”

Skywarp grumbled quietly, because Starscream had a point, as much as it bothered him. He hadn’t thought beyond getting Thundercracker back to the barracks then collapsing onto his own berth.

The trip to Starscream’s room was painful but short, and Skywarp slumped in relief when they finally deposited Thundercracker onto Starscream’s berth. Somewhere along the way, Thundercracker’s grip on Skywarp tightened at the sudden change, and when Skywarp glanced toward him, his optics were dark. They must have shorted out completely on the way over.

“Oh, calm down,” Starscream told him. “We’re here.” He stepped away, turning to rummage through the desk.

Skywarp took the opportunity to flop onto the berth himself. Starscream probably expected him to leave, but like the Pit was Skywarp going to make the trek to the barracks when Starscream would only call him back to fetch Thundercracker once the repairs were repeated.

“Skywarp?” Thundercracker asked, and yeah, his optics were still offline. He’d curled forward to rest his helm in his hands, and his elbows on his knees.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Skywarp said. “Wow, you’re slagged, huh?”

“Feels like freefall,” Thundercracker said, and Skywarp winced in sympathy. He’d felt like that the few times his warp generator had been seriously damaged, and it had left him purging his tanks after only kliks.

“Could be worse!” he said instead. “Starscream could be trying to weld your wings back on, instead.”

“I heard that!” Starscream snapped, coming back to the berth with some sort of toolbox in his servos.

“What, you want me to apologize?” Skywarp shot back. “I wouldn’t trust you with a welder anywhere near my frame.”

Thundercracker groaned. “Would you two give it a rest?” he asked, and despite the strain in his voice, Skywarp could feel his field settling from its sickly roiling. “Starscream, what exactly are you doing here?”

Starscream perched on the berth, and began pulling things out of his little box. “The same thing that any medic ought to do,” he said, explaining in his usual know-it-all tone. “Directing your self-repair’s attention to the loose connections. Once the connections are reestablished, there may be some glitches, but they’ll recalibrate as your HUD catches the errors. It’s far less likely to go wrong than invasive surgery, if you ask me.”

Skywarp tuned out Starscream’s chatter as he started in on whatever repairs he was doing, which apparently involved plugging a device into one of Thundercracker’s dataports and poking at the screen a lot. Instead, Skywarp focused his attention on the errors from his warp generator. If he was going to be stuck here for a while, he might as well take care of the problems that had popped up during the battle.

It was obvious what had driven him into stasis. He’d already been low on fuel from successive teleportation, but pulling Thundercracker and Starscream along with him had been more than enough to push him over that edge. He’d never had to teleport that much mass before.

 _Now I know the limits,_ he thought glumly, poking through the warnings to assess the damage. As far as he could tell, it had put a lot of strain on his frame, but nothing more than that. All the damage to his turbines must have happened in the crash after he lost consciousness.

The only thing wrong with him now was low energon levels. “Hey, Starscream, you got any energon hidden in here?”

Starscream paused in his work to glare at him. “Why would I have energon?” He growled. It wasn’t a no, which was all Skywarp needed to know.

“Never mind, I’ll find it myself,” he said, pushing himself upright again and making his way over to Starscream’s desk. The entire thing was covered in mountains of datapads. Skywarp poked around at a particularly looming stack, and sure enough there were a number of cubes tucked away within it.

“Hey!” Starscream growled from the berth.

“Cram it. You owe me and you know it. I could report you to Soundwave for theft,” Skywarp shot back, tilting his head and pouring the contents of the cube down his intake.

“Just leave it, Starscream,” Thundercracker mumbled. “You’d have forgotten about those cubes anyway.”

“I would not,” Starscream said, but other than a glare, he didn’t say anything else as Skywarp finished off the cube and started sipping on a second. Skywarp hid his smirk behind the cube as he moved to join them on the berth again. Starscream was apparently finished, because with a few final jabs at the screen, he grunted and detached the thing from Thundercracker. “How’s that?”

“Better,” Thundercracker said. His optics were slowly booting again, and though they were dim they had lost the flickering Skywarp had noticed in the medbay. “Thanks, Starscream.”

“Good,” Starscream grumbled. When Thundercracker started shifting, however, he punched him on the shoulder vent. “No, stop moving! I don’t want you tromping through the hallways and undoing all my hard work by bashing your helm on a bulkhead.”

Thundercracker mumbled something, but it was nearly incomprehensible, and as Skywarp watched, his system powered down into recharge.

“That always happens,” Starscream said, rearranging Thundercracker further away from the berth’s edge. It was quiet, for Starscream. Skywarp glanced up, surprised, to see an unusually serious expression on Starscream’s faceplates, as he looked down at Thundercracker.

It was… Skywarp didn’t know how to describe it, but it made something twist up inside him.

“He was right, you realize,” he said, and Skywarp reviewed the last few sound clips of their conversation again, trying to remember what Starscream meant, before it clicked as Starscream continued to speak. “At this rate, we won’t even survive the war.”

“Yeah, right,” Skywarp scoffed, but doubt was nibbling at the edges of his confidence with the memory of the heavy stack of errors he’d awoken to. “Speak for yourself.”

Starscream bristled defensively as he whirled toward Skywarp, but for once he did not descend into a rant. He even kept his voice quiet. “You would have been a lot worse off than damaged thrusters right now if Thundercracker and I hadn’t pulled you out of that freefall. And,” he continued, speaking in a rush before Skywarp could get a word in edgewise, “the two of us would have been scrap before long if you hadn’t pulled us out of the path of those maniac grounders.”

Skywarp closed his mouth so quickly he bit his glossa. Starscream glared at him when he made a face. “What, do you disagree?”

“Never thought I’d say it, but no,” Skywarp grumbled, shooting Starscream a sullen look. “Okay, so he was right. What are we supposed to do about that? Play nice? Like that’ll last for more than a day.”

“We don’t have to play nice as long as we distract him too much to notice it. But it will require that we work together.”

Skywarp’s first instinct was to make a gagging face, but for once Starscream wasn’t trying to act all smug about it. Instead, he was frowning just as much as Skywarp, and his wings were twitching with poorly disguised tremors. That was enough to remind Skywarp of the seriousness of the situation, so he settled down.

“Well, that’s not going to happen,” he grumbled. “I’m sure as slag not going to stop domming him just because you’re there, and you’re just going to try and steal control away from me. And his attention.” He huffed and swung his legs so that his turbine heels clattered against his seat. “It’d be easier to pin him down and have our way with him.”

Starscream turned shrewd optics on him. “Crude as always, Skywarp. But the idea has merit.” He snapped his fingers and stepped toward Skywarp, who leaned back in alarm. “Tell me, does he let you pin him down? Use handcuffs on him?”

“I don’t need to,” Skywarp scoffed. “Sides, why would I use those in the fracking barracks?”

“Of course you’re missing the point,” Starscream huffed, shaking his helm. Skywarp ground his dentae together to keep from snapping. “If we tie him down, he doesn’t have to take our orders. He simply has to take it.”

Skywarp’s optics widened, but the smug smile on Starscream’s face snapped him out of it quickly. “That only works if he likes bondage, anyway,” he challenged, levelling a look at Starscream.

“Which is precisely why it shall be your mission, my dear trinemate, to find out if he enjoys it,” Starscream snapped back.

“Why me?” Skywarp retorted. “What’s so important that _you_ can’t do it?”

“Because I’ll be the one getting a hold of materials once you’ve gotten your answer!” Starscream snapped. Then he fidgeted uncomfortably. “And he might respond better to your inane babbling.”

Skywarp watched Starscream fidget for a few moments before it dawned on him, and he broke into a smirk. “He’s mad at you, isn’t he,” he said. “You didn’t kiss up, so now he’s holding out. You can’t ask him because he’s not coming to your room.”

“I didn’t say that!” Starscream yelped, but his wings were twitching, and that was all Skywarp needed to know to set him off cackling.

“Hush, you cretin!” Starscream screeched. “You’re going to wake him.”

It was enough to quiet Skywarp momentarily, but he was still snickering. Starscream scowled, but he turned his back on the both of them as he put himself in front of his desk.

“In any case, the repairs should have settled by now, and I see you’re feeling much better. There’s no further reason for you to linger in my quarters,” Starscream snipped.

Skywarp rolled his optics, but shook Thundercracker’s pauldron. “C’mon, Thundercracker, wakey wakey. Starscream’s kicking us out.”

Thundercracker stared up at Skywarp muzzily as his optics came online. “We’re moving?” he mumbled, as Skywarp tugged him upright.

“Yeah, c’mon. Time to hit the berth for real,” Skywarp said, hauling Thundercracker’s arm over his shoulder and dragging both of them upright. He suppressed a groan as he did so. His damn feet ached. He could hardly wait to flop into a berth and recharge, himself.

“He’ll sleep for a while, but if he starts complaining of headaches or getting dizzy again, bring him to me,” Starscream said, still not facing them. “Now hurry up and go lie down, you’re an utter mess.”

“Glad to know you care, Screamer,” Skywarp grumbled as he left the room, but it lacked heat even to his audials.

______

Command was calling the last battle a victory. Considering how full of injured the base was, Skywarp figured he would have hated being an Autobot, but he didn’t protest. It meant they all got time to wait for their wounds to heal, instead of pushing to build more, train better, go faster in a desperate attempt to gain the advantage on the forces of the Senate.

As it was, at least a third of the troops inhabiting Kolkular were damaged, and Skywarp, with his still-healing thrusters, got the jobs that didn’t require much moving. In the end, what that meant was a lot of monitor duty.

To make matters worse, he and Thundercracker had been put on opposing shift schedules for the duration, and so they only managed to see one another when one of them was headed to recharge, and the other was going to a shift.

Both of them were still recovering from their injuries, so it wasn’t like they would have gotten up to something, but the lack of contact was still irritating. Skywarp was pretty sure he’d spoken to Starscream more, and even that was just quick status updates.

Today, though. Today was different. Today was the day that Skywarp finally got taken off of light duty. Even better, it was the first day he and Thundercracker got off duty at the same time since that unfortunate battle.

As soon as Skywarp clocked out, he took his chance. The moment Thundercracker stepped into the barracks, he grabbed his wingmate and teleported them away. It was one of the storage closets in the lower level, not that Thundercracker would know it. He would just know that they were pressed together, in the dark and alone with each other.

“Skywarp!” Thundercracker gasped, before Skywarp muffled his mouth with an enthusiastic kiss. “Mmmmph, what’s this about?” he groaned, when they finally pulled away, then yelped as Skywarp spun him around.

It was cramped space, but Skywarp couldn’t say he minded. It gave him a chance to press close to Thundercracker’s back plates, to “accidentally” brush sensitive spots as he reached for Thundercracker’s hips. “What, are you surprised?” he teased, pressing Thundercracker closer to the wall. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. You gonna make me wait?”

“Primus no,” Thundercracker gasped. “Skywarp, please…”

Skywarp set to it with a will, teasing every spot he knew on Thundercracker’s frame and whispering every dirty act he could imagine right where Thundercracker could hear it.

“You like being pressed between me and the wall?” he hissed when he finally sank his spike into Thundercracker’s open valve. Thundercracker gave a pitched whine and leaned back toward him. “You like being held so close you can barely move?”

“Yes,” Thundercracker breathed.

“But you can still move just a little too much,” Skywarp tutted, as Thundercracker groped for him with one unsteady hand. He picked up his pace abruptly, pushing Thundercracker forward until he had to brace himself against the walls with both hands.

“I could order you to hold still,” he mused to the sound of Thundercracker’s desperate whining. “Or I could spare us both the trouble and tie you like this.”

A bleat of static spat from Thundercracker’s vocalizer as his EM field radiated desperate lust, and Skywarp smiled wickedly as he knew how.

“You gonna nod yes for me? You gonna tell me you like that?” Skywarp whispered into Thundercracker’s audial.

Thundercracker pressed his face against the wall, where his forearms were just barely bracing him up.

“What about it?” Skywarp repeated, thrusting deep enough to force a wail out of Thundercracker. “I could chain your arms together right now. Maybe pull them down to your sides, really crush you up against the wall so you can’t even twitch, only take whatever I want to give you.”

Thundercracker’s plating rattled. “Yes,” he gasped, pressing back against Skywarp as much as he could in his constrained position. “Pit, please!”

Skywarp grinned, and slid one servo around Thundercracker’s hip, to rub circles over his node and drive Thundercracker into a screaming overload.

Afterward, they curled up on the floor of the storage closet Skywarp had chosen, ignoring the dust and the fluid drying on their thighs. Skywarp had braced his back against the wall and dimmed his optics, and Thundercracker was half sprawled across his legs.

“What brought that on?” Thundercracker murmured. Skywarp could feel the vibration of his trinemates voice everywhere their frames touched, and their fields twined together, quiescent.

“Huh?” Skywarp said, feigning nonchalance. Starscream would probably get mad if Skywarp messed this up, and while he didn’t care if Screamer was angry, he didn’t want to give him a chance to mock his abilities to deal with Thundercracker. “Oh. Well, we haven’t done it, so I kinda wondered. Not that I don’t like ordering you around,” he grinned, brushing a hand along Thundercracker’s vents.

Thundercracker hummed. “Well, if you’re going to do it, it’d better not be in a storage closet,” he said, strength returning to his voice. “And it’d better not be makeshift. I won’t deal with any nylon stuck in my joints.”

“Yeah right,” Skywarp snorted. “Like I’d have the patience to tie you up. Handcuffs sound just fine to me.”

“You have plenty of patience when you’re teasing me,” Thundercracker said with a dry chuckle.

“Because that’s _fun_.” Skywarp retorted, and received an elbow in the stomach for his troubles, but even that couldn’t stop him from grinning.

_____

Starscream was sulking in his labs a few days later when Skywarp had finally set out to hunt him down. He’d seriously considered going to Starscream with at least a few paint transfers left over, but he’d gone to the washracks with Thundercracker, and that left him no way to justify leaving the streaks of blue and white in place.

“Well?” Starscream snapped, the moment Skywarp set foot through the door. “What do you want?”

Robbed of his chance of startling his trinemate, Skywarp huffed. “Not gonna thank me, Screamer?”

Starscream wheeled around in his seat and narrowed a glare in Skywarp’s direction. “That, my _dear_ Skywarp, depends entirely on what information you have for me, if any.”

Skywarp sauntered further into the lab, trailing his wings close to the tables full of beakers just to see Starscream bristle. “Good news, then!” he said in a sing-song. “He’s all for some cuffs.”

“Good,” Starscream huffed, and turned his attention back to the screens in front of him, where rows and rows of numbers scrolled by. “Now get out!” I have work to do.”

Grumbling, Skywarp did.

_______

It was several weeks more before Skywarp and Starscream spoke to one another alone. Thundercracker didn’t needle either of them about getting along better, but perhaps it was because of their truce, because somehow things between him and Starscream had… settled.

It wasn’t that they stopped shouting at each other, really. That happened endlessly. It was just that somehow… even when Starscream’s biting comments settled like a burr in Skywarp’s plating, it didn’t matter so much.

Maybe it was because Starscream had finally come up with a good plan for once. If it meant they would get to double-team Thundercracker eventually, Skywarp found that he was willing to put up with Starscream shouting at him during drills, and though he hated to admit it, they really were flying together much better now- and that was probably because Thundercracker was back to playing mediator.

It probably helped that Thundercracker had clearly patched things up with Starscream. One evening, he had come into the barracks, covered with scuffs and wearing a rather contented smile, even when the entire barracks had broken out into catcalls and teasing.

“Who got the stick out of your aft?” Ramjet had crowed. Thundercracker shook off the question.

“Obviously it wasn’t you,” Thundercracker had retorted, and the barracks had dissolved into raucous cheers.

Skywarp waited for the surge of jealousy, but it never came, and he’d practically purred as Thundercracker shot him a grin and settled onto his berth.

“Have a good time?” he’d asked, looking Thundercracker over with a grin.

“Yes,” Thundercracker had answered, a hitch of amusement in his voice. “But I’m not giving you details.”

“How about reenacting it?” Skywarp asked with an exaggerated leer.

“Try it and I’ll kick you,” Thundercracker teased back, his field warm and content.

And that had been that. He didn’t drag Thundercracker off to face, and he hadn’t taken it out on Starscream the next time they ran drills.

They had stopped avoiding one another, too. It wasn’t that they spent time with one another all three together, and it certainly wasn’t that Starscream and he were hanging out for _fun_. But they stopped dispersing so quickly after training or a patrol.

Skywarp was certain that Thundercracker had noticed the changes, and he often caught his trinemate staring at him with a thoughtful expression. It hadn’t resulted in a conversation, not yet, but Skywarp was sure it would soon.

Fortunately, Starscream called him back before that happened.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can probably see, this thing ended up being long enough for three parts, instead of two, but I finished writing the whole thing, so I figured I might as well upload all of the rest! It's been long enough.

“I got them,” Starscream said the moment Skywarp walked into his quarters.

“Oh yeah?” Skywarp asked, genuinely interested. “Show me! C’mon, Screamer, you can’t just say that and not cough up the goods.”

“Cool your turbines,” Starscream huffed, “And I told you not to call me that.” But he was smirking as he turned toward his desk.

There was a container full of padding sitting on it, and when Starscream turned it toward Skywarp, he could see that it contained not just a pair of handcuffs, but a full set of cuffs, including chains and a number of collapsible metal rods.

Skywarp whistled, impressed and not caring that Starscream would take it as a compliment. It wasn’t like Screamer had made these on his own, anyway, he’d just bought off someone else. Besides, they really were impressive. “Why all the extra bits?”

“Why not?” Starscream retorted smugly. “A pair of handcuffs may suffice for a first run, but I do hope you realize it’ll take more than one interface to settle things between us.”

“Didn’t think you’d bother to get all of it beforehand,” Skywarp grumbled, and took the cuffs in hand, to turn them over. “These keyed into a comm signal or what?”

“No, they have a manual lock. Honestly, Skywarp, do you know how many things could go wrong with a electrical cuff? Short them out and they might just stay locked. No, it’s far better to use something manual. It’s not as though Thundercracker will be struggling to get away. _I_ will be keeping the key, by the way.”

“Whatever,” Skywarp grumbled. “I bet I could break them if I needed to, anyway.”

“If you do, you’ll be in charge of getting the replacements,” Starscream said. “And these were not easy to find.”

“Fine, sure.” Skywarp rolled his optics. “By the way, where exactly were you planning on us going to use these things, anyway?”

“What do you mean?” Starscream asked, setting the cuffs back into their case.

Skywarp turned and frowned when he saw the blank look on Starscream’s face. “You bring Thundercracker to your room when you’re with him, don’t you?” Skywarp asked, and huffed when Starscream nodded without comprehension again. “So I’m not going there when it’s all three of us. It’ll just turn into a fight again.”

Starscream scowled, though whether it was because of the accusation, or because Skywarp had thought of something he hadn’t, he couldn’t tell. “So where would _you_ suggest?” he snapped. “In case you hadn’t noticed, this base isn’t exactly overflowing with locations where three mechs can get together for a clandestine frag.”

“Well, maybe it’d be difficult with three,” Skywarp acknowledged. Yeah, as he thought about it, most of the places he ended up dragging Thundercracker outside of the petty officer barracks were pretty cramped. He could think of a few that might comfortably hold the three of them. “But it makes it better than you automatically trying to stay in charge, right?”

Starscream ground his dentae together, but after a few moments he gave a grudging nod. “Very well. Find a place, and give me the coordinates. The next time our schedules allow for it, we can meet there and begin.”

Skywarp rolled his optics, but set the cuffs down in Starscream’s container. “You sure we don’t need to decide who gets to take him first, while we’re at it? Not that I don’t mind sloppy seconds, but I’m not gonna let you try and hog him all to yourself.”

“Don’t worry about that, Skywarp,” Starscream purred. “Now, here’s what we’ll do…”

________

Starscream was there waiting when Skywarp teleported in. “Where is he?” he hissed before Skywarp had even finished materializing.

“Why’re you asking me?” Skywarp retorted. The room he’d found, in the end, was an empty storage bay, deep in the basement and all but forgotten by most of the troops. It was far enough from the main corridors that no one would overhear them, and open enough that they could do whatever they wanted. Skywarp was rather proud of his choice, if he said so himself.

He dropped down to sit on one of the abandoned storage containers set against the wall. “I had monitor duty. D’you think I was hiding Thundercracker under the desk or something? There’s no space for it.”

Starscream gave him a look, but Skywarp just snickered. “C’mon, Screamer, ask me how I know that,” he teased, and was rewarded with the sight of Starscream’s wings hitching up in irritation. “He’s probably coming down from the barracks, just wait a little while,” he said, leaning back against the crates and settling in.

Starscream huffed, but didn’t respond, just settled into pacing the length of the room, only to halt when the door rattled open.

“Starscream?” Thundercracker said, glancing back and forth between the two of them. He hadn’t moved more than a step into the room. “What’s this about?”

Starscream was smirking, and Skywarp was sure his own expression wasn’t much better. “It’s time for a team building exercise,” Starscream said. “It may not be required, but I do hope that you’ll stick around and enjoy it.”

Thundercracker looked between the two of them again, this time with a look of dawning comprehension. “Are you two sure about this?” he asked, but Skywarp could tell they’d caught his attention. He no longer looked ready to just walk out again, but more than that, his optics were lingering on the both of them, bright and maybe even hopeful.

“What, you don’t want to try?” Skywarp asked, leaning forward with a wicked grin. “We got this all set up for you, too. You don’t want to have fun with us?”

“This had better not be a repeat of last time,” Thundercracker warned, but he was stepping forward, which meant they as good as had him. His field flickered around him. “What do you have planned?”

“That’d be telling,” Skywarp snickered, and sprawled back against his crates again.

Meanwhile, Starscream had stepped back toward his container with the cuffs, and was opening it, careful to keep the contents hidden from Thundercracker.

Which meant it was time for Skywarp to pick it up a little bit. “Go to the middle of the room, and stand still,” he ordered. “Turn off your optics.” With Thundercracker’s optics off, he wouldn’t be able to see Starscream lifting the cuffs, though he would be able to hear him stepping closer.

Skywarp jumped down off the crates and moved closer as well, circling around behind Thundercracker to watch him. “Hands behind your head,” he said, and grinned as Thundercracker obeyed. “Good. Now let Starscream work, and shout out if you don’t like something, yeah?”

“All right,” Thundercracker nodded, then flinched as Starscream took his wrist.

“Stop twitching,” Starscream ordered as he snapped the first cuff closed around Thundercracker’s wrist. Skywarp continued circling as he watched for Thundercracker’s reaction, but despite his intial flinch when Starscream touched him, he stilled. His mouth fell open, but he moved with Starscream’s direction. When Skywarp stepped closer, he could hear the low hum of Thundercracker’s fans. His field was a churning mess, but Skywarp could feel his eagerness.

Starscream finished securing the bindings to Thundercracker’s wrists in short order. The chain between each cuff gave him enough space to lace his fingers together behind his helm. If Thundercracker ducked his head forward, he would be able to bring his cuffed hands around in front of him, but he didn’t move even after Starscream knelt to attach the cuffs to his ankles, then secure the spreader between them, keeping Thundercracker’s stance wide.

Starscream returned to his case, and Skywarp couldn’t help but give in to temptation. He tilted Thundercracker’s helm up with a hand under his chin, and though Thundercracker startled, his optics didn’t light up.

“You’re doing pretty well,” Skywarp purred, and leaned in to kiss Thundercracker. He responded eagerly, opening his mouth to Skywarp’s attention and pressing ever so slightly forward.

The moment was interrupted by a loud harrumph, and Skywarp pulled away to see Starscream watching them, one pede tapping impatiently at the floor. “If you’re quite finished?” he asked.

Skywarp snickered and stepped back. “He’s all yours.”

“Good,” Starscream huffed. He stepped forward and lifted the final piece for the evening, a thin metal plate, fitted and designed to magnetize over a mech’s optics.

There was an accompanying piece in the case, Skywarp knew, that could fit into a mech’s mouth and keep it open or closed as needed, but they’d both decided after the disastrous efforts last time that leaving Thundercracker his vocalizer was important. Even if it was just to express hesitance. They’d both been able to agree on that, and after Thundercracker had returned from his night with Starscream, Skywarp hadn’t felt the need to challenge Starscream on that.

Starscream put the plate in place, and again, Thundercracker let it happen. This time, Starscream leaned in for a kiss, and Skywarp snickered. Clearly, he was angry about Skywarp getting there first.

When Starscream pulled away, Skywarp saaw him biting gently at Thundercracker’s lip. He took a step back and looked Thundercracker over from helm to pede. “Now kneel,” he said, his voice a whipcrack in the quiet of the room.

Thundercracker wobbled as he dropped to his knees, but Starscream didn’t help him, and Skywarp didn’t step forward either. This was where their plan really went into motion, and the important part was that they didn’t argue where Thundercracker could hear it. It didn’t matter if Skywarp would have pushed him down himself. Starscream was doing his thing, and unless it was important, Skywarp wouldn’t interrupt. Same thing Starscream had agreed for him.

Besides, Thundercracker did make a very pretty picture on his knees in front of them.

“Helm back, mouth open,” Starscream ordered, and Thundercracker obeyed, with a definite hitch to his ventilations. Starscream’s smirk was blatantly obvious, and Skywarp was sure that Thundercracker could tell even with his optics covered.

Without any further ceremony, Starscream let his interface panel fold away, and his spike was released into Thundercracker’s face, only partially pressurized. Thundercracker turned blindly toward it, and Starscream made a pleased sound.

“You know what to do,” he said. Thundercracker nodded, and started to lick along the shaft, whining as it didn’t keep in place. Starscream just watched, amusement flaring as Thundercracker worked the tip slowly into his mouth, and did his best to control the spike’s movements without his hands to steady things. At least Starscream wasn’t thrusting, Skywarp noted as he finally settled behind Thundercracker.

He reached for Thundercracker’s thrusters first, to smooth his hands along the casings. Thundercracker twitched but managed to keep his posture. Just as well; Skywarp didn’t want to make him actually choke. Skywarp slid his hands quickly up his trinemate’s form, lingering briefly on his aft before transferring his attention to the joints of his wings. There were so many sensitive components there, if only he was ready to take advantage of them, and oh, he was.

He started slowly, just running his fingers along the joints at first to give Thundercracker the time to get used to the contact. When Thundercracker’s attention had returned to Starscream’s spike, Skywarp finally pressed into the joints, quickly moving to the spots that made Thundercracker gasp and moan around the spike in his mouth.

Starscream must have liked the results, because he finally took pity on Thundercracker and put one hand at the base of his spike, steadying it even as he used the other to tug Thundercracker’s helm closer. Thundercracker, if anything, seemed to be leaning forward now that he didn’t have to worry about keeping the spike in his mouth. His field throbbed against theirs, and Skywarp pulsed back eagerly, riding on the surge of Thundercracker’s pleasure.

Skywarp suppressed the urge to mouth along Thundercracker’s neck. It would distract him and hinder his movement, and while Skywarp didn’t really mind that, Starscream was sure to get irritated, and it wasn’t worth it when they’d already started. Instead, he licked the very top of the wing joint, just enough to get static to jump through the area, and slid his freed hand back down to Thundercracker’s aft.

Starscream was looking down at him now, brow arched. He couldn’t see what Skywarp was up to, with Thundercracker in the way. Skywarp grinned.

 _“Time to get on with it,”_ he commed, and very deliberately pressed his palm against Thundercracker’s panel. It was already warm to the touch, and Skywarp pressed harder, just to make Thundercracker squirm. He didn’t press back into Skywarp’s touch, but his fingers were clenched at the back of his helm, a sure sign of what that act of self-control was costing him.

“Open it up,” Skywarp said playfully, and the panel practically burst open under his tapping fingers. Within moments Skywarp was pressing his hand directly to the array, feeling as Thundercracker’s valve started to lubricate and heat further.

Thundercracker’s field against his was thick with arousal. His spike was slowly beginning to pressurize, and Skywarp didn’t bother to constrain it. He pulled his fingers away from it, and instead slid them along Thundercracker’s valve lips as they continued to lubricate, gathering it on his fingers. He traced up to the exterior nodes, brushing lightly over them as Thundercracker once again did his best not to twitch.

He was doing well, all things considered. The light touches were a complete tease, one Skywarp had used on him before, and he put up with it pretty well, considering that he had Starscream demanding so much of his attention.

Skywarp dragged his fingers away from the node, ignoring Thundercracker’s muffled noise of disappointment, and pressed his fingers to the opening of Thundercracker’s valve. Again, he did nothing more than rub gently back and forth, spreading the lubrication and feeling Thundercracker’s valve flex under his touch.

“You want me to put them in?” he whispered into Thundercracker’s audial, pressing harder but never quite inside. Thundercracker, trapped on Starscream’s spike, could only whine in want.

Skywarp chuckled and finally pressed his fingers up, reveling in the warmth and the slide of lubricant. Starscream had paused in his direction of Thundercracker’s movement to watch the both of them, and when Skywarp glanced up, his optics were bright and his mouth was hanging open as he watched.

Skywarp immediately set to teasing Thundercracker, thrusting his fingers slowly, curling them, then withdrawing completely to play with his node. All the while, Starscream watched and his optics burned with lust.

It wasn’t long before Starscream stepped away and pulled his spike from Thundercracker’s mouth. Thundercracker leaned forward and nearly overbalanced before Skywarp grabbed him with a free hand to keep from tipping over. “You really don’t want to let that go,” he snickered, skimming his hand up Thundercracker’s body until he could run his fingers over Thundercracker’s lips. He snickered as Thundercracker laved his tongue over them, and set out trying to catch his glossa between his fingers.

Starscream interrupted the moment with a huff. “If you are quite done?” he asked pointedly. His spike was slick and hard, and as Skywarp watched he ran a hand down the length of it.

“Yeah, yeah, Starscream,” Skywarp huffed back, but before Thundercracker could start worrying the way he was prone to, Skywarp gave his node one last rub and pulled away. “All yours,” he said.

Thundercracker turned his head as Skywarp pulled away, trying to follow along without his optics to help. Skywarp stepped back, and Starscream slid into his place at Thundercracker’s back, resting one hand at his hip and using the other to test his valve.

Skywarp paced around in front of the pair, using the time to admire both of them. He could see Starscream’s fingers working into Thundercracker’s valve, and the strings of lubricant just beginning to trace their way down his thighs. But most of all, he could see Thundercracker’s pressurized spike.

He let his own panel finally fold away, and his own spike pressurized into his hand. He stroked himself for a few moments, suppressing a groan at the slick sounds of Starscream working at Thundercracker’s valve.

He didn’t deny himself for very long; didn’t want to bother with it. Hardly a minute later, he stepped forward, and dropped to kneel in front of Thundercracker. With a groan, he kissed Thundercracker and let his field pulse out.

Thundercracker gasped against his mouth and pressed forward, trying to slide his frame against Skywarp’s and nearly overbalancing. Skywarp steadied him, and guided Thundercracker’s cuffed hands away from the back of his head and tugged them to rest over his shoulders instead. Thundercracker gave a quiet but noticeable sigh of relief against his lip components.

Skywarp drew away once more, this time to take Thundercracker’s spike in hand. It must have coincided with Starscream brushing against a node, because Thundercracker’s hips jerked in his grasp.

Thundercracker gasped into Skywarp’s mouth, then moaned, and behind him Starscream hissed out a sigh. Skywarp slid his free hand between Thundercracker’s thighs to find that Starscream had finally slid his spike into Thundercracker’s valve. Thundercracker was rocking his hips into the contact, trying to urge Starscream into thrusting with just his frame. Clearly, he didn’t dare take his mouth away from Skywarp’s attentions enough to actually beg. It left Skywarp grinning as he traced the edges of Thundercracker’s valve, feeling where Starscream’s spike disappeared into it.

Clearly Starscream could feel it as well, because he twitched and glared at Skywarp past Thundercracker’s shoulder. Skywarp grinned back.

“Well?” he asked brightly. “You gonna frag him til he screams? Or are you gonna make all of us wait all day?”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Starscream grumbled, but sure enough, he began a slow, steady thrusting that had Thundercracker moaning and bowing his helm forward, nearly bumping his helm against Skywarp’s in his blindness.

The motion of Starscream’s thrusts drove him against Skywarp’s chassis, just close enough that their exposed spikes brushed. Skywarp shivered as the contact lit up his sensor net and sparked an idea.

He shuffled closer to Thundercracker, until there was no more space between them, and took both of their spikes in hand. Thundercracker made a strangled noise as he gave a testing stroke, hips jerking, and Skywarp gave a groan of his own as Thundercracker’s spike slid against his own, catching on ridges and sending sensors alight.

He began to stroke their spikes together, thrusting his hips into the motion. It wouldn’t be enough to send him into overload, but it was plenty pleasant, and he was having fun teasing Thundercracker, slowing down whenever Starscream sped up, grabbing Thundercracker’s hips to pull him into a long, slow grind, all the while kissing him like his life depended on it.

Starscream grew more and more vocal, and his thrusts became more and more forceful, but it was Thundercracker who toppled over the edge of overload first, shouting until Skywarp crushed their mouths together. He shuddered between them, his spike shooting spirals of transfluid against Skywarp’s plating as Starscream continued to rock him with heavy thrusts. It was a few more minutes before Starscream shuddered, then stilled, and Thundercracker panted hotly against Skywarp’s lips as Starscream ground against him, eking out the last of his overload.

Skywarp’s spike was throbbing by now, and he couldn’t help but rut against Thundercracker’s chassis a few times before he finally managed to pull away.

“Don’t worry, we’re not through with you yet,” he growled into Thundercracker’s audial, and was rewarded when Thundercracker gave a sparkfelt groan.

Starscream pulled back behind him, removing his spike from Thundercracker’s valve with a groan of his own, leaving fluid to drip down the inside of his thighs. Thundercracker’s hips twitched as Starscream drew away, and he leaned forward against Skywarp as the support behind him disappeared.

“Up and off me,” Skywarp said, tapping at Thundercracker’s arms and lifting them away from his shoulders. Thundercracker moved them and swayed slightly as Skywarp took the opportunity to move away, getting back up on his pedes.

“He’s all yours,” Starscream said with a smirk as Skywarp moved around behind Thundercracker.

“Lean him forward,” Skywarp said, getting to his knees again and getting a grip on Thundercracker’s hips. “I want him face down.”

Thundercracker was already moving, putting his cuffed hands out in front of him to brace himself, but Starscream pulled him down until his helm was in his lap, nearly pressed against his now-closed panel.

Skywarp grinned as he used his thumbs to spread Thundercracker’s valve wide open. It and Thundercracker’s thighs were smeared with lubricants, and Starscream’s transfluid oozed slowly from deep inside the valve flushed from interface.

“He used you good, didn’t he?” Skywarp teased as he slid his fingers into Thundercracker’s valve to hold him wide. Thundercracker made a strangled sound and tried desperately to rock back against him. “Ah ah ah, you know better than that,” Skywarp said, pulling his hands away from the bared interface components and returning them to Thundercracker’s hips. “You don’t get to decide the rules, and right now the rule is you don’t get anything until we give it to you, you understand?”

He returned to teasing Thundercracker’s array before he could answer, pinching the anterior node and rolling it between his fingers, and getting a yelp from Thundercracker for his efforts. Fresh lubricant was beginning to well up in Thundercracker’s valve, and he was rolling his hips ever so slightly into Skywarp’s hands.

Taking one last moment to admire the rhythmic clenching of Thundercracker’s valve, Skywarp ran his hand, slicked with lubricant, along the shaft of his spike, smearing it along the length, but impatient as he was he didn’t do anything more before he was nudging his spike into Thundercracker’s valve and sinking deep with one long motion.

Thundercracker choked on a gasp, and Skywarp could see his hands scrabbling at the plating of Starscream’s thighs as he tried to brace himself to push back into the thrusts. Starscream was doing nothing to help him- he had turned his attention to the shoulder vents and wings in easy reach, and was mercilessly and methodically teasing everything he could touch.

Skywarp groaned as he pulled out nearly to the tip, the difference in temperature between Thundercracker’s welcoming valve and the surrounding air almost a torture in itself. He drove home again quickly, and his control finally shattered as he listened to Thundercracker’s mewl.

He thrust again and again until he was hammering Thundercacker’s valve, grunting in appreciation as Thundercracker _wailed_ beneath him, pressing desperately into every brush of contact. When Skywarp pulled one hand away from Thundercracker’s hip to slide between his thighs and press against his node, it was just enough to send Thundercracker tipping over the edge into overload, and he came with a scream, jerking against Skywarp’s hold.

Skywarp thrust through his overload, groaning hard as Thundercracker’s valve clamped hard around him, driving him closer and closer to that moment of incandescent pleasure. One last shuddering clench of Thundercracker’s valve, one more thrust to the hilt, and Skywarp’s entire frame erupted with pleasure, spurting transfluid deep into Thundercracker as he gasped and sobbed beneath him.

It took the last of his energy to remember to collapse backward onto his aft rather than flopping over Thundercracker’s frame. When he raised his optics, Starscream was watching him, with a simmering heat in his optics. _“Don’t think this means I like you,”_ he huffed over comms.

Skywarp stared blankly at Starscream until a movement from Thundercracker caught his attention. Thundercracker was twitching, hesitantly licking his lipplates to try and clear the transfluid that was smeared across his face.

So Starscream’d got off from just watching that? _“Feeling’s mutual, Screamer,”_ he retorted, but it lacked bite. _“And you owe me an overload.”_

 _“Later.”_ Starscream said, then tapped Thundercracker’s pauldron to get his attention. “That’s enough. We’re done here.”

“Yes,” Thundercracker said after a moment, his voice fuzzed by static.

Skywarp got to his knees just in time for Starscream to pass Thundercracker’s frame over to him, and Skywarp settled to cradle him in his lap as Starscream pushed to his feet and returned to the case for the keys to remove the blindfold and the cuffs.

“So, you enjoy yourself?” Skywarp asked, unrepentantly smug.

“Pit, yes,” Thundercracker sighed, relaxing into Skywarp’s hold. “You two should scheme more often.”

“It was mostly Starscream,” Skywarp admitted, then huffed. “I guess he has to get a good idea _sometime_.”

“My plans are brilliant and you know it,” Starscream scoffed, returning with the keys.

“Oh yeah?” Skywarp retorted. Before he even finished the words, he was waiting for Thundercracker to go tense in his arms, but Thundercracker remained still, even relaxed as Starscream leaned in to take off the cuffs.

Maybe it was because Skywarp wasn’t tense either, even though he and Starscream were arguing. His field hadn’t even bristled, despite Starscream’s pressed close against him.

Must’ve been relaxed from the overload, he thought dismissively. It wasn’t as though he was the only one. Starscream was downright mellow as he snappd out his responses.

And if the argument lasted only long enough for the three of them to settle down in a pile, with Thundercracker tucked in the middle, well, it was only because it took that long for Skywarp to win, nothing more.


End file.
